Two semifinalists from last season’s World Championship qualify alongside our second American for Intel Extreme Masters Shanghai

Hydra, Nerchio and puCK qualify for Shanghai as this weekend’s competition comes to an end.

This past weekend, the final set of qualifiers for Intel Extreme Masters Shanghai took place, with winners of each one securing a position at the main event. A total of three server qualifiers were played out on the European, North American and Oceania server with Nerchio, puCK and Hydra winning them respectively.

Oceania server

The opening qualifier was played on the Oceania server where the two biggest names to sign up were Hydra and Kelazhur. Some other notable names attempting the qualifier run were Iaguz, MaSa and Puck.

There were few surprises in this qualifier as the two biggest names met in the final with the semifinalist of 2016 World Championship Katowice winning the qualifier. Hydra's results:

2-0 vs. Operator

2-1 vs. Rex

2-1 vs. iaguz

3-2 vs. Kelazhur

Hydra is no stranger to the Intel Extreme Masters with appearances in Singapore back in 2013, as well as Taipei in 2015 and the last two World Championships in Katowice. Hydra will be attempting, yet again, to lift his first IEM trophy.

European server

The second qualifier had several notable participants, including ShoWTime, uThermal, MarineLorD, Kelazhur, FireCake and Elazer. In the end, it was Nerchio continuing his incredible 2016 form as his dominant performance, all the way from round of 64 to the final, secured him a slot at IEM Shanghai. His results were as follows:

2-0 vs. Gerald

2-0 vs. hinO

2-0 vs. Strange

2-1 vs. Bly

2-0 vs. Lambo

3-0 vs. Kelazhur

Nerchio will compete at his fifth Intel Extreme Masters event, his first one being back in 2012. His most recent performance was in Katowice in 2016 where he lost vs. Polt in the semifinals.

North American server

The final qualifier of the day was on the North American server. We saw some familiar faces who wanted another shot at Shanghai, like Kelazhur who lost the previous two qualifiers of the day and was competing in the third qualifier in a row. After around 20 hours of competing, Kelazhur was devastated to lose yet again as this qualifier stayed with the Americans as puCK breezed through the bracket in a display of brilliance, not dropping a single map:

2-0 vs. Jardozer

2-0 vs. Nice

2-0 vs. JonSnow

2-0 vs. Elazer

3-0 vs. Welmu

We have seen puCK compete at Intel Extreme Masters in the past: New York and Sao Paolo in Season 8 (2013-2014), as well as Shenzhen, Toronto and San Jose in Season 9 (2014). The highest he placed was at IEM Shenzhen with 9th-12th and now he will be looking to top this result in Shanghai.

The player lineup is almost complete

The full list of qualified players is as follows:

Only four slots remain to be filled at Intel Extreme Masters Shanghai. They will all given out as direct invitations to the players, based off their 2016 WCS points. Keep your eyes peeled to our Twitter and Facebook on the 16th of June for the announcement!

Intel® Extreme Masters is the longest running global pro gaming tour in the world. Started in 2006 by
ESL, the competition features Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, StarCraft II and League of Legends tournaments
across multiple continents.